Dinner
The following resources are meant to enhance a family's dinner experience, or other group meetings:
"Thankfulness" worksheet (two-sided) PDF
"Thankfulness" worksheet (two-sided) Open Office file
We started using this Thankfulness worksheet in early January 2019 and it has developed into a habit. Even our two-year-old participates (he asks us to draw a bus, recalling his favorite book, "Wheels on the Bus", is thankful for certain colors, certain toys, members of his family, etc.). This simple template has facilitated a change in the dynamic of our dinner experiences and I believe it has had an impact on each of us. I can't imagine not doing this.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King has called "ingratitude" one of the greatest sins; that is, one of the greatest things that separates us from God. Developing the habit of taking the time to stop and be thankful to God on a daily basis draws us closer to God.
There is an ancient Jewish tradition of being thankful to God one hundred times per day. That equates to thanking God every ten or fifteen minutes. This requires that we be thankful for not just the obvious stuff, but the seemingly mundane (breathing, going to the bathroom, clean water, etc.) and even the seemingly bad (providing an opportunity to demonstrate faith and strength, even in adversity).
It should come as no surprise that modern science (see the field of "Positive Psychology", watch the "Happy!" documentary) has identified scientific proof that being thankful ("counting your blessings") increases a person's happiness.
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Reflection is a powerful tool. I developed this worksheet to use at home but I haven't introduced it yet as we are focused on building the daily thankfulness exercise at dinner. I may use it for each of my tutoring meetings.
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